When it became clear that the war was lost, a new government was
formed by Prince
Maximilian of Baden which included Ebert and other members of the
SPD in October 1918. Following the outbreak of the German
Revolution, Prince Max resigned on 9 November, and handed his office
over to Ebert. Prince Max also declared that the Kaiser
had abdicated. Ebert favoured retaining the monarchy under a different
ruler ("If the Kaiser does not abdicate, the social revolution is
inevitable. But I do not want it, I even hate it like sin"
he had said to Max von Baden on 7 November). On the same day, however,
Scheidemann proclaimed the German Republic, in response to the unrest in
Berlin and in order to counter a declaration of the "Free Socialist
Republic" by Karl
Liebknecht later that day. Ebert reproached him: "You have no
right to proclaim the Republic!" By this he meant that the decision
was to be made by an elected national assembly, even if that decision
might be the restoration of the monarchy.
Scheidemann's proclamation ended the German monarchy, and an entirely
Socialist provisional government based on workers'
councils took power under Ebert's leadership.
Ebert led the new government for the next several months. He used the
army under the command of Minister of Defense Gustav
Noske and also Freikorps
(paramilitary organizations of ex-soldiers) to suppress a Spartacist
uprising against the establishment of a parliamentary democracy.
Spartacist leaders Rosa
Luxemburg and Karl
Liebknecht were murdered by members of the Freikorps. When the Constituent
Assembly met in Weimar
in February, 1919, Ebert was chosen to be the first president of the German
Republic.

The Spartacists
however thought that - despite the defeat in January - a continuation of
the revolution would be possible. On 3 March 1919 the plenary assembly of
the workers council of Berlin decided with a overwhelming majority on a
political general strike to protect the revolution. They demanded the
recognition of the worker and soldier councils, the release of political
prisoners, the abolition of the military court martial, the foundation of
a revolutionary workers resistance, the abolition of the right-wing
extremists volunteer federations, etc.

General strike Berlin March 1919(the cards show the transport
strike)

Noske immediately
declared a state of siege in the city and gave the order for the Freikorps
to enter Berlin on 4 March. That afternoon, crowds gathered outside
the police headquarters on Alexanderplatz and, having roughly handled a
Freikorps detachment, promptly found themselves on the receiving end of
armoured car machine guns.

March 4, 1919
Alexanderplatz and surroundings

March 5, 1919
attack on the police headquarters (Polizeipräsidium)

On the next day the
People's Naval Division received news that they had been 'disbanded' after
the government issued an official announcement of the fact.
Disgruntled, a group of sailors approached the Berlin Police HQ to voice
their protest. Jumpy from the previous day, one of the Freikorps
soldiers shot and mortally wounded a sailor. Enraged and wanting
revenge, the People's Naval Division threw their lot in with the
revolutionaries. That night angry mobs, including sailors,
surrounded the police station and were only kept at bay by sustained rifle
fire.

March 6, 1919
People's Marine House

March 6 saw the
climax to the fighting. Colonel Reinhard arrived near the
Alexanderplatz with his Freikorps and even a tank. The infantry
split into small groups and began to slash a path through the
revolutionaries, rapidly taking over their key strong-points.

However, the
defenders in a neighbouring building named the 'People's Marine House'
offered stiffer resistance. To help crush these revolutionaries an
air strike was called in – yet the sailors continued fight on.
Reinhard ordered an outright assault, but it took three attacking waves
before victory was secured.

March 9-12, 1919
the battle of Lichtenberg

The Spartacists and
their allies were then slowly beaten back to working-class tenements of
East Berlin. Here they threw up barricades and turned the entire
suburb of Lichtenberg into an armed fortress. An estimated 10,000
revolutionaries prepared for the final showdown.
On 9 March a rumour circulated that the Lichtenberg police station had
been stormed by revolutionaries and that 70 police officers had been
executed in cold blood.

The Vorwärts, like many other publications, reported the next day
that the men had been: 'shot like animals'. The story was an
exaggeration. Five policemen had been killed, although the exact
cause for why still remained unknown. Regardless of the facts,
however, Noske now issued his notorious order declaring: 'Any individual
bearing arms against government troops will be summarily shot.'

For the next four
days the Freikorps ripped into East Berlin. Thirty sailors from the
People's Naval Division were gunned down in a courtyard for having the
audacity to turn up to a government office demanding back pay. In
one case a father and a son were dragged into the street and shot. T heir
crime: possessing the handle of a stick grenade.

By 12 March, the
Freikorps burst into the building housing the Workers' Council of Berlin,
the Spartacist nerve centre. The Council was forcibly dissolved and
peace slowly returned to Berlin's streets. Noske had destroyed the
Spartacists and seen the sailors crushed, yet the price had been high:
between 1,200 and 1,500 were dead and roughly 12,000 wounded, although
with negligible losses to the Freikorps.

March 9, 1919

March 12, 1919

Many of those
involved in smashing the Berlin uprisings sincerely believed that that
they were saving lives in the long run by stopping Germany from descending
into a Red Terror as experienced by millions in Lenin's Russia.

In this their fears
were well grounded. Liebknecht certainly had no bones about calling
for the blood of his enemies, and the Spartacists and the People's Naval
Division had a propensity for using fighting methods equally as brutal as
those favoured by the Freikorps.

But regardless of
the threat Germany faced, it is difficult to excuse much of the suffering
the Freikorps inflicted on Berliners, particularly in March 1919.
The freehand given to them in the capital, the lessons they had learnt
there, and the official recognition they subsequently received would
critically weaken the new Weimar Republic.